It’s been months long since Napoles has been found out. But
up until now, she hasn’t spoken a word.
We might come to wonder why the process is taking too long.
Maybe it’s because of…
The investigations on
the people involved in the scam?
Ma’am Arlene? (the
so-called Janet Lim-Napoles of the judiciary, according to PhilStar News)
The health of Janet
Napoles? (which, also according to PhilStar, has been experiencing high blood
pressure and anxiety attacks)
Earthquake damage?
(that caused great deal of damage in Bohol, and in which currently, Maribojoc Mayor Leoncio Evasco Jr.,declines the help of
Red Cross)
These are so far the things that I could think of that are
causing an impediment to the real problem. These things are slowly drifting me
away from the unresolved problem. And I hope that you, the reader, remains in
tact with the unresolved problem of the scam.
Hopefully, Napoles will speak up all the facts sometime soon.
Anyway, I’ve been pondering lately on the causes of corruption.
Let me go back to the Spanish era.
Filipinos back then were slaves of the Spaniards.
They were
pushed to work until they suffer from hunger, forced to have cedulas (an identity card and tax certificate that
has to be held at all times, if not, the guardia civil will arrest him/her),
compeled them to pay a large amount of money for indulgence (a pardon for sinning, given by the catholic
church) – or, in other words, enslaved them without resentment.
For me,
this was the start of corruption. Filipinos had to live a life so full of
punishments and debts that they didn’t even incur to have.
I think that Jose Rizal wrote the Social Cancer or popularly
known as “Noli Me Tangere”, so that we could realize something from it. From
his story we can deduce that those who were rich were corrupt and those who
were poor had to resort to different jobs and people in order to have money.
But then don’t you think that it’s still happening up until now? Those rich
politicians of ours are still enjoying the money they got from us. Just like
the Spaniards, right? The priests, the gobernadorcillo, the guardia civil
forced Filipinos to pay money or otherwise “taxes” only to show us that they
use it on their gamble and vanity. Like our senators, congressmen, and other
government officials, each employees has less VAT on their salary. And how many
Filipinos are there? 93 million! -- With each paying taxes everyday, and not
even getting a significant benefit from it.
The term coined out as “Social Cancer” is a characteristic
of our government. “Social”, because it
involves the individual persons of the society, and “cancer”, because of its
malignant character and a power so strong that it has no cure to it.
Cancer – just take it
from its literal meaning, “uncontrolled abnormal multiplication of cells that
damages the body”. Our government has a
“cancer” because its corrupt system is almost accepted by each unit and it
keeps multiplying as time passes by, and consequently it destroys the dignity
of the nation. No matter how many rallies, revolutions, there are – it remains
to be rampant. In fact, when asked for verification, this “cancer” is denied.
Therefore, there’s no cure. Yet. (I still
look forward to a better future though)
Ever since I was small, I kept hearing the two words “Vote
wisely”. But it seems that this has never been done. Up until now, we still
keep howling the words “Vote wisely” so that the people we voted for weren’t
like before. And, up until now, we still complain on the “corruption”, time
after time, person after person, commits.
And then, a question at the back of my mind rings a bell –
“Are we really living in a democratic government?”
During the Spanish era, Filipinos had no control over the
government officials, because, obviously, they were enslaved. They had no
choice but to follow them. They were mad at them. If they go against them,
they’ll get killed.
Now, we got what we want. We’re free. We could vote for
whomever we want. But let us, please,
not vote for someone merely because of their renowned name, or their
popularity. We should vote for someone whom we trust.
Okay, say, the person we trusted won. But then sometime
later, we see news on TV and on the newspaper that that person was involved in
a plunder case. Isn’t it saddening? We trusted our fellow Filipino, yet he
shows something opposed to what we believed in them. And we are still obligated
to pay taxes while the corrupt still live in luxury! Are we sure that our government, or, let me
say, the Filipinos, are still free? Most of us are suffering because of the
social cancer in our government.
Is that free?
I think that corruption started again during Marcos’ time.
Everything was okay – until his reign. We voted for him because he’s smart,
he’s eloquent, he’s wise. BUT, he ruined the reputation of the Philippines. He
ruined a lot of people’s life. (forgive
the harboring of my subjective feelings). This made a big impact – and people
carried on with
his trait. Then, here comes Erap. We thought that if we voted
someone not as smart as Marcos, he wouldn’t be corrupt. But on and on it goes.
I don’t think that changing our bias on people that we
should vote would have any difference. I think that we should start small --
start from our own hearts. Take the right path, don’t be tempted. And through
there, we could inspire others to be like us.
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| a bird is free, and so are we. |
